A Wall Hanging for a Friend

Greetings! A month or so ago, my good friend and fellow "marine-o-phile" Melissa had her birthday. Melissa (seen with me on the left during a hiking trip to Tolovana Hot Springs) is one of the best scientific divers at the University of Alaska, Fairbanks' School of Fisheries and Ocean Sciences. She is currently a marine biology graduate student, studying kelp ecology in Alaska's oceans. Even though my interests in the marine world fall more towards the physical oceanic environment, her and I share a deep love for Alaska's tidal and sub tidal realm. With this in mind, I decided to make her a tidal themed wall hanging for her cabin.

This by far has turned out to be one of my favorite creations for a few reasons. First, because I love the theme. There is so much artistry to be found in the marine world, as my mother, Cindy Shake, a metal artist in Anchorage, Alaska, as found in her work. Second, I made this wall hanging entirely from some great scrap material that I had in my scrap bin.

So, without further ado, here are some images of the wall hanging:



It is a vertical piece, made entirely of appliqued scrap pieces of batiks and calico prints from a variety of projects. The colors you see above represent the black rock of the tidal area and the bubbly blue dotted batik I used for the surrounding water. I free hand cut the sharp edges of the top of the rocky out crop. Then, I used dark navy blue and ink black wavy strips to emulate rocky outcrops to bring dimension to the substrate.



As many of you may know, the rocky shoreline of southern Alaska is made up of many different colors and textures. I had some left over applique squares from a previous Missouri Star wall hanging that I placed on top of the black, with plenty of spaces for the critters I was going to place in a vertical fashion along the wall hanging.





And the finishing touches! I added two sea urchins, a hermit crab, and a star fish. And, along the entire left side of the vertical piece, a long, flowing chunk of kelp. I think it turned out great in the end, although if I had had more time, I would have gone back and added much more thread elements. I think stitching would have really been a good technique to use to bring more texture to the animals and the surrounding rock. Well, more to add for next time!